One of three men sentenced to seven years for a violent ‘drug rip’ home invasion in Saskatoon’s Grosvenor Park neighbourhood has successfully appealed his sentence.

The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal reduced Nicholas Francis MacLeod’s sentence to five and a half years “because the sentence imposed offends the fundamental principle of proportionality in the circumstances of this case,” wrote Justice Neal Caldwell, with Justice Ralph Ottenbreit and Justice Georgina Jackson concurring

On Oct. 14, 2015, MacLeod, Nathan Taylor Narula and brothers Cody and Corey Favel stormed into a home on Garrison Crescent to steal drugs and money from Anita Lynn Favreau, a drug dealer recently sentenced to six and a half years in prison. Corey, 25, was shot during the melee and died.

The sentencing judge erred by relying too heavily on Narula and Favel’s seven-year joint-submission sentences “which detrimentally affected her assessment of sentence proportionality to the gravity of Mr. MacLeod’s offences and to the degree of his responsibility for them,” Caldwell wrote.

All three men pleaded guilty to break and enter and wearing a disguise with intent to commit an indictable offence. Although MacLeod admitted arming himself with a table leg, the Crown stayed his charge of possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose. Narula and Favel pleaded guilty to the charge.

MacLeod said the difference in his pleas, and circumstances, should result in a lesser sentence than his co-accused. Court heard McLeod has a sparse criminal record, cooperated with police and did not injure anyone during the attempted robbery. Favel sprayed bear mace in the home and Narula levelled his gun at a resident, who then fired the shots that killed Corey, according to the appeal decision.

Justice Caldwell determined those reasons constitute a sentence at the lower end of the four- to 15-year range — but not as low as three years.

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